But the reality, as it always is for preseason friendlies European clubs play against MLS teams, is just how much fans will actually see of stars like Lukaku, newly signed Swedish center back Victor Lindelof, Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini.

The answer more than likely: very little.

In addition to the Galaxy, United face Real Salt Lake on Monday, crosstown rivals Manchester City in Houston on July 20, Real Madrid in Santa Clara on July 23 and Barcelona on July 26 in Washington D.C.

Of those games, which opponents do you think United players are most looking forward to meeting?

Hint: MLS clubs don’t rate a mention.

“When you play against big teams, you are motivated and already in preseason. You give everything because you want to be fit and you want to win, and that can only help with preparations,” Fellaini was quoted as saying recently. “America is a great country with great cities. When we go there, we have so many fans supporting us and I remember playing Real Madrid; there were over 100,000 fans there, so it’s always a great place to play.”

There will be considerably fewer at much smaller StubHub Center where, as of Wednesday, endline seats starting at $129 were still available as were choice sideline seats for $299.

Limited minutes

United manager Jose Mourinho is already parceling out playing time to his squad.

For instance, Galaxy fans can expect to see first choice goalkeeper David de Gea for 45 minutes Saturday and 21-year-old Joel Pereira for the other half.

How much fans will see of the likes of Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard is anybody’s guess. With five games in 12 days to start United’s season, minutes will be carefully monitored.

Two stars fans definitely won’t see are Wayne Rooney and the MLS-linked Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The former moved back to boyhood club Everton after losing his place on the team. The 35-year-old Ibrahimovic was released by the club after suffering a serious injury that has put his career in doubt.

Indeed, most of the news out of United these days has little to do with the Galaxy game, as fans and management are more focused on replenishing their playing ranks ahead of their Aug. 13 Premier League opener against West Ham United.

New signings

Former Ajax winger Millen Baars was the latest acquisition Wednesday, with the 16-year-old confirming on Instagram that he was the newest Red Devil.

Spurs midfielder Eric Deir is poised to sign if the persistent rumors are to be believed. Inter Milan striker Ivan Perisic is another reported target, as is Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller.

So it’s clear United has much bigger fish to fry than minnows like the 6-4-8 Galaxy — winless in their past three games — they could conceivably swallow whole.

Real Madrid thrashed the Galaxy 5-1, remember, in the opening game of their 2012 U.S. tour, while United hammered LA 7-0 in 2014 at the Rose Bowl.

Given scores like that, Galaxy coach Curt Onalfo is likely more concerned Saturday about keeping pace with a big club than worrying how much he will see of their best players.

Nick Green is the longtime soccer columnist for the Southern California Newspaper Group and covers Torrance, Lomita and the craft beer industry for the Daily Breeze. He also blogs about soccer at www.insidesocal.com/soccer, the local craft beer scene at www.insidesocal.com/beer and the South Bay at blogs.dailybreeze.com/southbay/. The native of England lives in Old Torrance with his wife and two cats.

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